


Freya's Family

by Queer_Queen



Category: The Huntsman (Movies)
Genre: FIx It, Families of Choice, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9178750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queer_Queen/pseuds/Queer_Queen
Summary: Freya accidentally starts the first ever orphanage ... country.





	

**_Prompt: Freya opens an orphanage._ **

Freya didn’t mean to open an orphanage. She had left her sister’s kingdom with the full intention of creating her own kingdom, one that echoed her pain over her lost daughter, one that ensured that no such pain – no such love – could ever occur again.

But then she met Aida.

The carriage her sister provided her had stopped, and one of the soldiers came to apologize for the inconvenience, but all Freya could hear was the mournful cry of a young child.

She barely remembered shoving her way out of the carriage, stepping down onto the muddy ground – staining the tips of snow white dress a dull brown – and rushing to crouch in front of the young crying girl. Freya barely noticed the mud now staining the front of her dress as she pulled the child closer to her, “Shhhh,” she murmured, rocking the girl back and forth, shakily rubbing her back, “don’t cry, shhhhhh.” And she continued like this, until the girl’s sobs became hiccups, and the tears stopped flowing, and her hug was returned with twice the amount of force.

Freya pulled back, for the first time properly looking at the girl-child she had just cradled close to her breast, her skin, eyes, and hair were dark, her clothing caked with mud, and her feet and hands bare, covered in scabs. Her hair was snarled at the top of her head, clearly unbrushed for many days, there were scars along her arms. Her eyes were desolate. She couldn’t be older than six years old.

“Please. Tell me.”

Those three words unleashed another torrent of tears, but the little girl spoke. Freya learnt her name, and her parent’s names – spoken with both reverence and dichotomy clearly indicating that the little girl, Aida, loved her parents and was scared to forget them – and her story.

Aida's parents had been some kind of traders or merchants, taking her and her older brothers through the Northern Kingdoms, collecting and giving wares throughout the big towns and some of the smaller cities. Somehow, in their travels, they had made enemies. So when the little family had taken a side route to try and skip the winterly rain falls that flooded one of the roads, they had been set upon. Aida had been hidden, but she had not been hidden well enough.

She had seen everything.

And then she had been left to find her way back to the last town, wearing the blood of her parents. When she had gotten there, she had been given nothing. No justice, no care, no sympathy. The people who had traded with her family for years had taken one look at a little girl who had just been through the worst day of her life and turned her away. Left on the street to beg for coins so she may see her next miserable day with a slight bit more food in her stomach.

And then her guards had stopped because the little girl had fallen from hunger into the path of her horses.

“Aida.”

Doe eyes blinked up at her, “Y-yes?”

Freya took a breath, “Would you like to come with me? I’ll-”

Before she could even finish her sentence Aida was in her arms again, “Yes yes please yes please lady please please ...” the stream of words continued and Freya numbly held her. She hadn’t even made an offer yet, no mention of food or candy or care, just the offer for Aida to come with her.

Something warm fluttered in her chest.

Freya ignored it and nodded to her guard, scooping the little girl up against her chest and bringing her into the carriage with her.

…

After meeting Aida things changed.

For one, her plans. Instead of claiming a ready-made kingdom and spreading her rule Freya instead used her not-inconsiderable sums to purchase land.

Somehow, she collects more children.

She uses her powers to protect them when Ravena’s guards prove to not have the right kind of ‘touch’ for caring for children.

(It takes Oliver’s steadying hand for her not to kill the guard who struck him.)

When war breaks out between the kingdom Freya resides in and one of its neighbours things change. More children are brought in, and some of the older ones start asking to learn how to protect themselves, how to _fight._ She refuses. ‘Their’ king starts drafting more and more soldiers, and then his eyes drift to Freya’s orphanage.

Freya ends the war by killing both kings and crowning herself Queen Regent to both kingdoms, with young Angarwal (grandson to the neighbours King, the only member of his family left) and Garland (eldest son to her kingdom’s King) as Crown Princes. Angarwal, Garland, and Garland’s two younger sisters, Raen and Patricia, were taken to Freya’s home.

As Queen Regent Freya institutes a better care system for all children, orphan or not (after the first few times of parents with children beyond their means leaving them are her doorstep, she had begun care systems for the poor as well), better security for the smaller and larger towns, better education, better apprenticeships, larger amounts of food …

The other kingdoms near her regency create alignments with her, and she becomes head of a council of Kings and Queens, turning the Northern Kingdoms into prosperous lands, like nothing ever before.

And then, when she hears of the atrocities in her sister’s kingdom, Freya knows she must act. Not as Freya, the sister, but Freya, Queen Regent and Head of the Northern Council, Carer of Children and Lady of the Lost.

The battle is shorter than it should have been. For Freya had love in her heart and fear in her breast, for she is devoted to her thousands of children and knows what will happen if she loses.

Her brother and sister’s corpses are cooling on the floor, the mirror in shatters, when Freya hears a familiar cry. She looks up to see Aida, now much older, the head of the united armies, and a proud warrior, carrying a little girl who had the same desolate look that had been on Aida’s face, so many years ago.

Freya is glad her sister is dead, for she would not have wanted the woman she had once loved to die in the ways she was viciously imagining as she held her first daughter and the little girl in her arms.

With her generals Eric and Sarah at her sides, Aida standing to her right with little Snow White in her arms, Freya announces to the crowd of residents and soldiers that she, the Queen of the North, is now taking the South, to be held until Princess Snow White can decide whether she wishes to include the South to the Northern Council.

Her words are met by cheers and exclamations of joy … like with Aida, she had not even mentioned what she would give them in exchange – food aid, war bonds, recompense for lost family –, for becoming her children, her family.

…

And later, when Freya passes, she leaves a family of millions, with a legacy that will forever be remembered. Her body is held in suspension for years as mourners’ trek across the country and the continents to pay their respects to the beloved queen. And when she wakes in the pure realm … her daughter and lover meet her and they sit together, as a family for the first time. And then they talk. It is a hard talk.

But the pure place is different, and she lets go of the pain, and she re-meets her daughter, and re-meets her lover, for they are all very different people now. And together they watch as Freya’s other children grow and become old and pass, and are greeted at the entrance by their parents … and their Mother.

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> just a silly little one shot ... with maybe a sequel/extension


End file.
